Good for what ails U(SA)

23.01.2012

The ACA Guide for the Perplexed

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words–or thousands of pages. Jonathan Gruber’s “Health Care Reform” tackles a serious issue, the Affordable Care Act, in a clever cartoon format (evocatively illustrated by Nathan Schreiber) and explains in simple English why we need it, what the act is all about, what it does (and, more importantly, does not do) and how it is good for America’s fiscal and physical health. Gruber, a professor of economics at MIT and former assistant deputy secretary for economic policy at the Treasury, knows whereof he speaks. He was a member of the team that created the individual mandate in Massachusetts (yes, “Romneycare”) and worked with Congress and the White House to bring health care reform to the national stage. The book, technically a “novel graphic,” dispels the myths and falsehoods surrounding the ACA and provides clear, easy-to-understand facts that anyone, including the GOP and the Supreme Court, should be able to wrap their heads around. While the act itself is not perfect, this handy guide for the perplexed very definitely is.